Polish or paint the trim?

[squirrel]

In a bizarre turn, the side strip on that truck is the same extrusion as that used on 61 Impala's!

61`Belair maybe? not the impala. I have a 61 belair, so I notice these things

[JeffClark]

This is the tail lights on the 65 they are aluminum and were anodized, they looked like crap compared to the rest of the car so I polished them in the Black Brown and White rouge order then sprayed clear over them, I also did the stainless headlamp rings, door locks etc...

[JeffClark]

Im putting a 65 Chevelle togeather now that my brother abandoned at my toy box and im in the polishing and trimming stage now Ill shoot a pic of polishing tonight when I go there, I did the tail light bezels last night and the Black rouge took the anodizing off with no sanding.

[TheSilverBuick]

Mind you, I'm not sure the OE anodizing is completely stripped off, or how to tell, which is different from an aluminum bracket.

[JeffClark]

As TC says with rouge I use the Black (dark grey) and brown on my sewn wheel then on my final polish I use a Canton flannel with white and or blue (in that order) it takes some heat but easy when you figure it out, this is on a actual wheel not a die grinder but one of my parts as cast then polished.

[TC]

I'll add, you should use two different types of buffing pads a stiff one and a soft one, first you'll want to use the stiff buffing pad with a cutting compound that is for aluminum this will buff out the scratches, then stay with the stiff pad and use a all purpose compound, then switch the pad to the soft pad and use a final polishing compound......

If you get the compound from Harbor Freight you'll need the Dark Gray, Brown and White compounds(in order of use)...... A stiff pad will have lots of stitching close together a soft pad will have less stitching spaced further apart.......

[TC]

Post #7

Your not doing it right, then...... I polished the aluminum brackets I made to a mirror finish, your probably using the wrong compound or not applying enough pressure........ Was the polish you were using a liquid or a solid bar?.....

[CDMBill]

I voted for polish, but and alternative is paint or coating that is well off the usual. My buddy Karl used Alumablast paint with clear coat accented with black on his 62 F-100 gives a metalfalke effect. In a bizarre turn, the side strip on that truck is the same extrusion as that used on 61 Impala's!

[TheSilverBuick]

That bottom one was a bench grinder polishing.

Post #7

[TC]

Get a bench grinder and do your best polishing.

I agree with Scott, get some buffing wheels for the bench grinder and some compound for aluminum, it'll shine right up.....

[TheSilverBuick]

I like polishing trim, on small trim like you have install it on the car then mask the paint around it use a high speed die grinder with a cloth polishing wheel on aluminum use a medium cutting rouge first then a polish rouge, if you have a die grinder you can get the supplies at ACE hardware for about $20.00 you can get a small polish wheel and a couple small tubes of rouge, you will be quite amazed at the finish you can get.

I will look into this for the trim that I left on the car. Thanks!

[JeffClark]

I like polishing trim, on small trim like you have install it on the car then mask the paint around it use a high speed die grinder with a cloth polishing wheel on aluminum use a medium cutting rouge first then a polish rouge, if you have a die grinder you can get the supplies at ACE hardware for about $20.00 you can get a small polish wheel and a couple small tubes of rouge, you will be quite amazed at the finish you can get.

[anotheridiot]

Honestly, its polish and paint.... clear. I dont like the fake chrome paint. Got a metal flake powdercoat that is supposed to be awesome chrome I have yet to try. I have the center post for the hinged part of the hood halves of my 36 that actually still had chrome on parts of it I was gonna try this stuff on just because where the chrome stayed its about .015 higher than the pits, so it all needs to be filled to save it. But my personal taste would be to paint it an accent color to the car so it looks like you did it on purpose, not tried to cover it up. If the chrome powder looks cheap, we will just go black on everything at that point.

[TheSilverBuick]

The cost of chroming/professionally polishing aluminum trim is super expensive and has no guarentee the aluminum will hold the shine or coating. Stainless trim is way nicer, but this car didn't come with that. I haven't priced a powder coating option.

A key thing to point out is I attempted to make the painted version look as close to the polished version as possible, so you know that ideally a clean polished shine is what I want, it's just a matter of using the paint to even out the surface of all the small scratches.

[yellomalibu]

A lot of the trim on my truck looked terrible when I got it. I didn't even polish it - I cleaned it up with 1500 grit and it looks tons better than it did before. The half worn out sandpaper took a long time to cut through the over spray that was on the trim, but it worked.

I voted for polish it, because I've seen enough painted trim with a bunch of chips in it - looks terrible. Have you considered having it chromed or possibly powder coated? Powder coating would scare me a bit because of the build-up possibly interfering with fit - but it is a lot more durable than paint.